Mischief, Magic And Fidelity
by princesspomegranate
Summary: After Loki and Sigyn have had time to settle down, the real work begins. First sequel to Five Kisses. LokixSigyn.
1. The Honeymoon Is Over

**So, this is the first sequel to **_**Five Kisses**_**; if you've not read that and the oneshots that take place before this then you may want to... Just an idea. ;)**

**There are some big changes in store for Loki and Sigyn so I hope you guys like it! :) They're certainly going to have... a time of it... :P**

**By the way, the music Loki's playing at the beginning of this chapter is Debussy's **_**La fille aux cheveux de lin. **_**And here's a link; just remove the spaces. :)**** www. youtube watch ?v=wF0xq51sxgM**

**Kit xx**

* * *

The melodic sound of chiming piano keys could be heard from the hallway outside Loki and Sigyn's rooms. Sigyn sighed as she listened to her husband play. The sound was so beautiful. She didn't understand how he could be so accomplished; but he was. And every time he sat down to play, she couldn't help but smile. Whatever else his playing did, it made Sigyn feel- and wasn't that always what everyone said the point of music was? To make the listener feel something?

Sigyn leant back into her chair and pulled her legs up to her chest so that she could rest the book in her hands against her knees. Loki's music was a perfect background for reading, she had discovered. It always made her feel so much more involved; particularly as Loki seemed to know the mood of whatever she had chosen to read and mimicked it in his playing.

She'd never questioned how or why that seemed so often to happen, but she enjoyed it all the same. And she had a feeling Loki wanted her to notice, but say nothing. She didn't know why; it was just the feeling she got. But it was a kind gesture, a little nuance that he seemed to have picked up that never failed to put Sigyn in a better mood.

A knock heralded from the door and Sigyn turned to look in its direction. Loki didn't miss a note however and remained seemingly oblivious to the intrusion, keeping totally focussed on his playing. The Queen pushed open the door and paused in the doorway before coming in, watching her son play for a moment.

Catching sight of the Queen, Sigyn sat up, quickly swinging her legs off of the chair. She closed her book and placed it in her lap. Looking over at her mother-in-law, it was obvious that she was surprised at the Queen's presence. She and Loki barely ever got any visitors when they remained in their rooms, so it felt almost odd to have another present.

"Good morning, mother," Loki said.

He stopped playing and swivelled round on his stool, a small smile lighting his expression.

"That was lovely," Frigga smiled.

He inclined his head to her. She didn't say it, but she cherished any soft moment she witnessed from her youngest son. And he, of course, wouldn't openly let it be known that he loved the praise- particularly from his mother. It was so rare that he received such compliments having Thor as an older brother.

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to steal your wife away from you for a time, Loki," Frigga said, interrupting Loki's thoughts.

He smirked after her and shook his head. He knew exactly why his mother wanted Sigyn; it only irked him slightly that she had made sure that he was not involved in any way. The date had been set for this occasion many weeks ago, and his exclusion was just as planned. Loki had been entertaining the idea of investigating however. And now, as he looked over at his mother, he couldn't help but think about disguising himself and following them anyway. _Hm_, he thought.

He looked over at Sigyn, whose expression made her appear more than slightly confused. Despite that though, she left with Frigga anyway, depositing her book on the small table beside her chair. Loki smirked at her as she disappeared; his poor wife had no idea what awaited her. What fun he would have when she returned.

* * *

"Forgive me, my Queen-" Sigyn started as she walked down the corridor beside Frigga.

"Oh, dear, please do stop calling me that- I'm your mother-in-law, call me Frigga."

Sigyn smiled a little at the older woman's pleasant attitude.

"Forgive me, _Frigga_, but where are we going?"

"Well dear, now that you have had a sufficient amount of time to settle in with Loki, it's time."

Sigyn paused for a moment before cautiously asking, "Time for what?"

Without missing a step, Frigga replied, "For your duties to begin."

Sigyn blinked, which only made the Queen smile and feel that she had to explain a little.

"Your honeymoon period is over now, my dear; and I believe you have had long enough to accustom yourself to the palace. Now it is time for the real work to begin."

The younger woman frowned a little, confused, but curious too. _Real_ _work? What does she mean by _real_ work? _Sigyn wondered. Certainly she had wanted to do something with her life; she had had no plans to _merely_ be Loki's wife. She had intended to figure something out with Loki that would get him to allow her to accompany him when he left Asgard occasionally, or even to leave on her own for a short period.

It might have been a difficult undertaking, but Sigyn had thought about its worth. She wanted to be able to experience new things and new places like Loki did. Admittedly, she understood what he meant about hunting; she wouldn't press that matter and ask to join him again. In essence, that was just seeking out dangerous beasts to kill, and that he thought it would be too risky to take her made sense.

But she wanted to be able to leave Asgard. To experience things like those heroes in her books did; to _adventure_. But it seemed to Sigyn now that she had already had some plans made for her, though she didn't understand what the Queen could have come up with that could be classed as 'real work'.

Frigga paused before the entrance to the main hall of the palace. Odin's Hall. Sigyn took a deep breath as her uncertainty grew. She couldn't fathom why her mother-in-law had brought her to Odin's Hall of all places, but she knew now that whatever this 'real work' was, it probably involved her seeing the Allfather.

Sigyn tried to keep her perplexed frown from her face as Frigga led her into the Hall. _This must be serious_, she thought, her mind rolling over a million possibilities as to the purpose of her being there that all seemed as unlikely as the last.

The two women came to a stop at the bottom of the grand stairway that led to the Allfather's throne, where he sat in all his glory. Frigga moved off to the side, leaving Sigyn alone under the Allfather's one-eyed gaze. She could feel a mixture of curiosity and anxiousness taking over her and she couldn't help but chew on the inside of her cheek as she bowed.

Odin stood from his throne, saying nothing for a long while as he surveyed his daughter-in-law; and Sigyn couldn't help but notice that he was acting very much as the Allfather in that moment. She had noticed when she had first met him that Odin had two sides to him; the powerful Allfather, and the pleasant and welcoming in-law.

The difference between the two sides of the God were strikingly noticeable, and Sigyn could tell that she was standing before the _Allfather_, the _God_, rather than a father figure at that moment. She gulped back a nervous lump that was growing in her throat as he levelled her with his gaze.

"Sigyn Iwaldidottir," Odin started, his voice ringing out to fill the entire hall. "Wife of Loki Odinson; Princess of Asgard, as a member of the royal family, I hereby proclaim you the Goddess of Fidelity."

His staff, Gungnir, clashed against the floor, finalising the motion with echoing swiftness. Sigyn blinked. _What just happened?_ she thought blankly. If she'd heard correctly then the Allfather had just named her the Goddess of Fidelity. _But... A Goddess? _Me_?_ She couldn't get her head around the situation and her thoughts started to become incoherent as she tried, so Sigyn had to turn her attention to the fact that Odin was smiling at her a little as he descended the steps from his throne. Somehow he seemed to have made the transition to friendly father-in-law.

He came to a stop before her and said, "My daughter, I must apologise if this has come as somewhat of a surprise to you."

It took Sigyn a moment to realise what he was saying.

"Surprise... Yes; to say the least," she replied, trying almost to laugh off her confusion.

Odin placed a hand on her shoulder, an almost comforting gesture, but also a fleeting one, as he quickly quit the room. Of course, Sigyn knew that the Allfather would have other business to attend to- she'd be surprised if he ever stopped. But his departure was just so... _abrupt._ She would have liked to have asked him about what had just happened, but since he had left so quickly, Sigyn could only stand in the same place, frozen by her bewilderment.

* * *

Loki had watched as the scene played out, cloaked in invisibility. The ceremony had gone rather smoothly, he thought, although Sigyn did seem to be a little shell-shocked. His brows rose as he thought about the position his father had given her. _The Goddess of Fidelity. _What a position for Sigyn to was telling- and in a good way for him, he thought too.

His father was wise; he had given an eye to possess such wisdom. And Loki knew that that meant that Sigyn would do well in the position he had appointed her to, which boded well for them all. Loki watched as a handmaiden approached his wife and he made the decision to depart; to return to their rooms before Sigyn did. He would have to prepare himself to face her questions.

* * *

Sigyn was utterly lost. She couldn't help but wonder why Odin had done that- why he had made her a Goddess in the first place, but moreover, why the Goddess of _Fidelity_? She didn't have too long to think about it though before a handmaiden arrived to whisk her away. And she didn't even get a chance to ask Frigga about it. Frowning, Sigyn followed the woman that she did not know the name of back to her rooms. She couldn't figure out the cause for what had just happened, so she phrased the question to the handmaiden.

Sigyn couldn't help but stare as the woman sneered, "It's probably because you're married to _Loki_- and if you've _got_ to stay married to him then you're going to have to be loyal. You deserve a medal for sticking with him- you might as well be the Goddess of Fidelity for you pains."

"I think you speak out of turn," Sigyn scowled at the woman.

Under the now-Goddess' gaze, the handmaiden seemed to shrink, her eyes finding the floor.

"Sorry, my lady, I meant no disrespect," the cowed woman mumbled.

_Clearly_ she wasn't being totally honest about that, but Sigyn dismissed it. She knew that a lot of people didn't understand their relationship, and she knew that those same people weren't too fond of her husband. She bit her tongue as she realised if she got angry about every little comment, then there probably wouldn't be many people that she hadn't yelled at.


	2. Don't Poke The Beast

The walk back to Sigyn and Loki's rooms was a silent one after that discussion. Sigyn wasn't at all happy with what the handmaiden had had to say and she couldn't care less for any more of the woman's opinions. It was true that she hadn't yelled at the woman- but she definitely didn't want to speak to her again after what she'd said.

She'd rather just wait until she got back to Loki to ask her questions- even if that meant she remained confused until she got there. Sigyn just hoped that he would have some answers for her since apparently no one else did.

The handmaiden left her at the end of the corridor that led to their rooms with a polite nod. Sigyn's nod in return was rather stiff; a physical manifestation that she was still quite annoyed at the woman's words. _Who does she think she is to be able to say something like that about_ my _husband? A _Prince_, on top of that?_ Sigyn thought, frustrated at the handmaiden.

At least when Sigyn complained about Loki to herself, she had spent enough time with him to _know_ that he could be irritating. Why scorn someone you've clearly never spent any time with? _Unless_... _Maybe they _have_ spent time together?_ Sigyn pondered. She frowned and quickly shook her head. Even if they _had,_ she was quite sure that she didn't want to know _what_ they had been doing.

_Besides_, Sigyn thought, brushing that off. _I have more important things to think about right now._ She turned her attention back to the explanation that she was going to have to give Loki, and the questions that she hoped he could answer for her.

From the corridor she could hear that he wasn't playing his piano; a non-sound that made her frown. She could have done with a calming piece of music to sooth her agitation right about then.

Sigyn pushed open the main door to their rooms and walked inside to find her husband sat cross-legged in his chair by the fire, a book resting open in one hand. It was as if he had been there the whole time- and she could never have guessed otherwise.

He looked up at her, lowering the book as he noticed her arrival. Loki offered her a faint smile in response to the bottom-lip-biting, confused expression that she was giving him.

"Did you have a nice time with my mother?" he asked, knowing full well what her answer would be.

"Erm, it was... interesting..."

He raised a brow and Sigyn looked at him for some time, trying to figure out how best to explain the events that had just occurred.

Slowly, she struggled to say, "Your mother took me to see your father and... and he made me-"

"The Goddess of Fidelity. I know, love," Loki finished for her, smirking a little.

He had thought to help her along with her explanation, simply because the way she was looking at him made him take pity on her. But Sigyn's eyes widened at the revelation that Loki already knew her news.

"How did you-?" she began.

"I _was_ there."

She blinked.

"You were?"

Loki inclined his head in confirmation.

"Wha- where were you?" she asked with a frown.

She hadn't seen him at all when she was in Odin's Hall. In fact, she hadn't seen anyone apart from Odin, Frigga and that rude handmaiden. _Where was he hiding?_ she wondered curiously.

"Oh, I was just in the background," he answered vaguely.

"So you knew? You knew what was going to happen then?"

"Yes."

"And you said nothing?"

Loki could feel the argument brewing as soon as he heard Sigyn's tone of voice. She was getting angry, though he wasn't entirely sure why.

"I only knew hazy details, love," he hedged.

"But still you _knew_, and you didn't warn me," she accused, her voice becoming increasingly harsh.

Loki sighed and noted, "This bothers you."

Sigyn waved her hands around, exasperated, as she said, "You _think_? I'd have liked to have been prepared for this, Loki; I had absolutely _no_ idea-"

"Surely you considered it a possibility," he put in.

"No. No, I did _not_."

He smirked a little, shifting from his chair and walking over to her. She made no move as he approached. She was just too annoyed at him. She even managed to retain her scowl and let out a deep and agitated breath as he tucked a wayward curl behind her ear.

"Sigyn, in marrying me you must have known to expect the unexpected," Loki reasoned softly.

"I did; but... from _you_, not your father," she muttered, her voice slightly calmer now.

He smirked and replied, "Well don't expect any more surprises from my father, he won't keep that up. It is _my_ job after all."

He would have mentioned the fact that this had also been planned for weeks, and had only actually come as a surprise to her; but he didn't want to keep 'poking the beast', or rather, continue to anger her, as it were. Sigyn smiled a little at him, but the expression faltered and slipped away quickly.

"What is it, love?"

"I don't understand all this. Why did your father make me a Goddess?"

"You're married to a God, it seems only fitting for you to be made a Goddess, does it not?"

Her brows creased together as she said, "I suppose that makes sense; but what _doesn't_ is that I am in no way qualified to be a Goddess."

Loki smirked, clearly amused by what his wife had just said.

"What qualifications do you suppose you ought to have?"

"I don't know. Just... What makes me better than any other at being faithful? Why should _I,_ over anyone else, be the Goddess of it?"

He seemed to be even more genuinely amused when he murmured, "You really don't see it, do you?"

"See what?"

"You stay with me regardless of the things I do, Sigyn. I thought we had already discussed how rare a thing that was."

She blinked.

"But... that's not..."

"Oh, trust me, love; any other would find it a far harder undertaking than you. You're perfect for the job; for _this_ job."

He kissed the top of her head and corrected himself as he pulled back, "In fact, you're just perfect."

She smiled softly at him and wrapped her arms around him in a comfortable embrace, leaning her head on his chest.

"I'm still confused by this..." she mumbled into his shirt.

"I know."

"I have so many questions..."

"I answer them if I can," he replied quietly.

Sigyn lifted her head from her husband's chest and looked up at him.

"What duties am I supposed to have? What am I supposed to do?"

He could see the need for the knowledge in her eyes, but Loki knew that it wasn't in his power to answer either of those questions.

He let out a long breath before replying, "That I can't answer."

The frown that deepened in her expression made him explain, "Your duties are something that only my father knows for now. You will learn to do whatever is required though, love, I'm sure of it."

Worry infused itself with her frown as she said, "But... but what if I can't handle everything? What if it's too much and I-"

"Give it time. You must get accustomed to your new position before you even think about duties."

Sigyn stopped questioning him then. This was getting her nowhere and was only seeking to make her even more confused than she already was. She didn't understand what Loki meant by getting 'accustomed to her new position'. Surely that just meant accepting it? And she knew that she could only really do that if she knew the details she was missing now.

What Sigyn didn't realise was that would be so much harder to do that than she estimated. And that a title and duties weren't the only thing that accompanied her new position.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hope you guys liked it and will let me know what you thought! :)**

**Kit xx**


	3. Catching Fire

Sigyn sat in the hall where she'd first come to find Loki when he's stolen her book. She'd been there a number of times since they got married, and previously, she had always found the space somewhat peaceful. Usually, Loki was with her, and most of their time was spent in quiet, away from the louder inhabitants of the palace.

Now though, she was regretting coming into the room entirely. The room was noisy, and the presence of two figures that she hadn't seen since she'd been married was almost stifling. _Why did I invite them again?_ Sigyn wondered as her sisters went on and on about something that was clearly very important to them and yet Sigyn could not help but find it tedious.

It seemed almost that absence had managed to make them more annoying. Perhaps the numbness that she'd built up over living sixteen years with them had washed away since she'd married Loki. _Brilliant_, she thought. What was worse was that she also seemed to have forgotten the best way to communicate with them since she'd stopped living with them, because now she could barely get a word in.

The reason that she'd invited them to the palace was because she didn't have that many friends, or any really, as she preferred to keep to herself, and she needed some advice. She'd wanted a second opinion from someone who wasn't a God about what had happened; about how she had apparently become a Goddess.

But somehow Sigyn had managed to forget that her sisters did not excel in the field of listening. Every time that she'd tried to bring up the subject, Dagný and Lifa started a new conversation about increasingly inane and unimportant subjects. Sigyn frowned. She could feel a headache brewing as the twins started discussing any potential suitors that they fancied themselves having.

"And there's that guard outside the palace!" Dagný said, waving her hands energetically in the air.

"Oh, you mean the friendly, dark-haired one?" Lifa asked.

Sigyn stared. _Do they mean Njal?_ she wondered.

"With those _blue_ eyes!"

_Definitely Njal._

"Yes, I know the one you mean."

"He's so handsome!"

"Isn't he just!"

"Sigyn, don't you think?"

Sigyn blinked. It surprised her that Dagný had actually just asked her a question instead of continuing to ignore her.

But before she could reply, Lifa said, "Oh she won't answer, she's _married _now."

"Yes, well, she must _know_ him anyway."

"Do you know him, Sigyn?"

She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted once more.

"_Of_ _course_ she knows him."

"What's his name?"

"Could you introduce us?"

Thinking quickly, Sigyn replied, "Haven't the foggiest."

And before either of the twins could say anything else, for Njal's sake, she added, "I think he's married.

She wasn't about to drop the poor man in with her sisters. He didn't deserve that. _Who_ did? She rolled her eyes and dismissed that thought. Her sisters would just have to find someone who could accept their... _Themness_. But Sigyn wasn't too concerned for them; after all, _she'd_ found Loki and she had most certainly not been looking, and since they were actively searching for someone... Well, she was sure that they'd find partners- Sigyn just wasn't going to make Njal put up with them. He was too nice to her.

She sighed as they looked at her, somewhat disappointed by the 'revelation' that Njal was unavailable. But she knew that they weren't finished talking and Sigyn just wasn't interested in knowing how 'handsome' every one of their hundreds of possibilities' was.

"Oh," sighed Dagný.

"Such a pity; he was so handsome."

Sigyn rubbed her temples, becoming increasingly frustrated. Her head had started hurting almost as soon as her sisters had started talking incessantly and the dull ache she felt was only getting worse.

"But at least we can still wonder at him from afar."

"And there are plenty of other men out there," Lifa put in.

The two girls went on in much the same fashion for at least another ten minutes before Sigyn and her worsening headache had finally had enough.

"Be quiet, just _be quiet_ already!"

Dagný and Lifa stopped talking immediately; but it wasn't totally because of their older sister's outburst. They were stunned more by the flames that had suddenly sprouted on a long curtain behind her. At first, Sigyn remained oblivious to the fire behind her; but that didn't last long because her sisters soon began to scream.

Sigyn put her hands over her ears to combat the shrill noise and only turned to the source of their panic when their pointing drove her to. As soon as she caught sight of the fire though, Sigyn's eyes widened.

"Oh, oh, oh; what in Valhalla?" she cursed.

"_Sigyn_!"

"What's going on?" shrieked Lifa.

"Why is it on fire?"

"Put it out Put it out!"

"Oh Just- just _go_-" Sigyn yelled to her sisters. "_Get_ _out_. I'll talk to you later."

Despite the circumstances, the twins were quick to leave. Their older sister had that 'do _not_ mess with me' look that they usually would have ignored; however they were less than willing and more than incapable of dealing with a fire. Both Sigyn and they knew that the two younger girls would have just got in the way had they remained.

Once they had departed, Sigyn stared at the flames licking at the fabric, attempting to consume it. Her first thought was to try to put them out by throwing the jug of water that stood on the table over the curtain. But when that didn't work because there wasn't enough water, Sigyn didn't know what to do.

"Loki!" she called, in hope that he could somehow hear her. "I could use some help right about now!"

Luckily for her, Loki soon appeared in the doorway. If she hadn't needed him so much then she might have questioned why he was so close to where she was supposed to be privately meeting with her sisters. But she _did_ need him, so the point was moot.

Loki stopped in the doorway and stared at Sigyn as she tried to pat down the flames with a napkin she'd found on the table. He smirked at her attempt to quell the flames and wondered whether he should wait until after the napkin, too, set alight before he helped her. Shaking his head, he walked slowly towards her.

"Sigyn, do you mind telling me what you thought was so bad about the upholstery that you felt the need to set it on fire?"

She stared at him, pausing in her motions.

"What? _I_ didn't, it just- wait, what?"

Loki waved a hand and the flames disappeared, leaving behind a singed velvet curtain- a standing remnant of the fire that had sprung and been extinguished so suddenly.

"Thank you," she murmured, moving over to slump into the seat she'd sat in before.

She threw the scorched napkin on the table and let out a deep sigh of relief. Her husband just watched her with an amused grin.

"_So_...?" Loki said, walking up to her.

She looked up at him. The grin on his face was a little too suspicious in Sigyn's opinion. It seemed a little too coincidental that just as she got angry, something strange had happened that made her sisters leave... _Maybe it was Loki. Maybe he decided that it would be a good time to play a trick. The twins' reactions certainly would have been amusing for him..._

Sigyn narrowed her eyes at him and said, "You're acting a little bit too much like you know what just happened, Loki. Was that your idea of a joke?"

His beamed at her, a large toothy smile of true amusement.

"Oh no, that was all you, love."

She blinked. That made no sense; she hadn't done anything.

"What?"

He said nothing, leaving his still-wide grin to speak for him.

"Loki, what is this?"

_ "This_ is excess magic," he answered eventually.

Sigyn opened her mouth in disbelief.

_ "Excess_ magic? What are you talking about? I don't _have_ magic at all, let alone an excess of it."

"Every God and Goddess has magic," Loki shrugged as he explained.

_ "Excuse_ me?" she said, standing up quickly as her disbelief built.

Magic? No. She didn't have magic. Odin wouldn't have given her _magic_- and then not even told her about it. That was a ridiculous thing for Loki to suggest... Wasn't it?

"Don't lie to me, Loki. If this is a joke, then I'd rather just know-"

"I am not lying to you, Sigyn. You were gifted this magic when you were made a Goddess."

His expression and his voice were serious. Sigyn stared at him. _Maybe he isn't lying_, she thought as she glared at him. But even if he was telling the truth about her having magic, that didn't explain why no one had told her about it.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked eventually.

Loki shrugged again.

"You were having a hard enough time coming to terms with being a Goddess, I didn't want to pile any more information on top of that. Also, I wanted to see what would happen when your excess of it built," he added with a smirk. "Apparently, like your temper, it can become quite explosive."

Sigyn glowered at him, clearly unimpressed, but that only made his smirk grow.

"Well isn't that funny," she started sarcastically. "What if I had killed someone or something?"

He rolled his eyes.

"How unlikely. Besides, I had a feeling that your sisters' presence might drive you over the edge so I kept a close watch."

She huffed, " Well congratulations, I guess you were correct."

"Calm yourself, Sigyn, this is nothing to fret over."

"Tell that to the curtain that I apparently just set alight to," she replied dryly.

Loki smirked and knelt in front of her; he could see into her eyes better that way. She sighed and tried to look away but found that she couldn't take her eyes off of him- no matter how angry she was inside.

"I... I don't know if I want this, Loki."

He tilted his head at her.

"Magic... Magic is what you do, not me. I was perfectly fine just being- well, just _being."_

Loki looked down, his lips momentarily forming a thin line.

"I know that this is new to you, Sigyn. It will take some getting used to; but you will manage, love. I would know, I'm well aware of your coping abilities."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"I have no doubt," he finished.

"But how do you know? How do you know that I won't just go and mess it up? I clearly can't control it- I didn't even know what I was supposed to be controlling-" she started, almost frantically.

"Sigyn, you are now the Goddess of Fidelity; you are a Princess of Asgard, and you are my wife. You are no _ordinary_ woman. You can cope."

"But those things, I... They're just titles. They're not really me, are they? I don't quite think that I... Well, I'm not..." she trailed off into a murmur and he didn't hear the end of her sentence.

"What, love? Strong enough, intelligent enough, beautiful enough?"

She stared, her eyes large.

"If you were to say any of those things then you would be severely misinformed. You are _all_ of those things and more."

She sighed and glanced at her knees.

"_Actually_, I was going for 'good enough', but it's nice to know that you think that I think so little of myself."

At that, Loki couldn't help but laugh and tilt her chin back up so that she had to look at him again.

"You can hardly say that I am unjustified in my assumptions when you just admitted that you think you're not good enough."

Sigyn said nothing to that, and Loki just shook his head.

"For all the books you read, you know little in this respect, love. If you believe that you're not good enough then you are being foolish, and there is no hope for the rest of us..."

He paused.

"You will do fine, love. This gift is one fit for the Princess that you were always meant to be."

Sigyn didn't know what to say. _Why did he say- why does he even think any of this?_ In her mind, she was far from _meant_ to be a Princess. She just happened to have fallen in love with a man that just happened to be a Prince. But she was never _supposed_ to be a Princess. Princesses were supposed to be sweet, polite and well-considered; she was none of those things.

But Sigyn knew that there was no point in arguing with Loki about it. There would be no way that she'd be able to talk her way through that one. Somehow, she knew, he would manage to turn it around and make her argument seem foolish. _Silvertongue, indeed._ So she just went back to the subject at hand.

"Loki, I..." she started with a sigh. "This is _magic_. You were born this way, Loki. You've lived with it all of your life. This is all new to me, and I-"

He placed a hand on her arm, a soothing, comforting gesture that silenced her.

"You will be fine. I will make sure of it, love."

She scoffed and asked, "What are you going to do? Teach me?"

"Magic cannot be taught, Sigyn," he said softly.

"Then how am I supposed to learn?"

He smirked.

"It'll come."

Placing a soft, chaste kiss to her lips, Loki repeated, "It'll come."

* * *

**Author's Note: Attack of the annoying sisters once more! Run away, run for your lives! Ah, what fun they are to write (*secretly wanting to smack my head against a wall every time that they're present in Loki and Sigyn's lives...*)...**

**Anyway, sorry it took me so long to post this chapter, I had my Loki blocked by Jareth, the Goblin King... What is it with mischievous men, eh?**

**Hope you like the chapter and will let me know what you think! :)**

**Also, just in case anyone cares, I passed my first year at University with a 2:1. :D Glasses of wine (or cake for anyone underage or teetotal (not glasses of cake by the way, that'd be weird...)) all around! :D**

**Kit xx**


	4. To Keep A Secret

A week passed, but Sigyn was no closer to coming to terms with her new abilities. In fact, she was quite sure that she'd gone in the opposite direction to becoming comfortable with them. Every time that she thought she'd overcome the feeling of discomfort that she associated with magic, something else seemed to happen to put her off again.

And Sigyn had discovered that those things seemed to happen more whenever she got angry or annoyed; and those things _usually_ meant that something nearby was set on fire. It was unbelievable how many times Sigyn had lost control of her temper and, as a result, something had burst into flames.

So far she had set fire to the curtains in the hall, a bunch of flowers in a vase, a cake (she wasn't quite sure how that had happened) and her own dress. Sigyn had almost had a shouting match with Loki over never discussing that last incident again. It had been humiliating for her, and she was just glad that they had been alone in their rooms when it happened.

This expenditure of excess magic really did give 'sparks fly' a new meaning.

Though Sigyn didn't realise until then that she got so angry all the time... Even trying to control her temper wasn't doing her much good; occasionally things just set her off, and the rest was singed and smoky history.

"You have to channel your magic," Loki explained eventually. "Put it towards something."

Sigyn stared at him, her mouth falling open slightly.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

He smirked and shrugged his shoulders, walking over to take a seat at his piano. Sigyn frowned and followed him across the room, manoeuvring herself between Loki and the piano. She looked at him questioningly until he offered her an explanation.

"It was quite entertaining to watch you set things on fire. I was wondering what would go up in flames next. Just blame my curiosity," he added somewhat innocently.

_As if Loki could be innocent_, Sigyn thought as she rolled her eyes.

"I could just blame _you_."

"Well you wouldn't want to do something like that now would you, love? Then you might well get annoyed and set your dress on fire and I might get another show," he grinned.

Her gaze hardened as she stared at him completely unimpressed.

"I thought we'd discussed you never mentioning that again?"

"Ah but surely you remember how you had to throw the dress off of you- and _surely_ you remember what happened afterwards," he said silkily, his hands coming up to rest on either side of her hips. "I'd say that _that_ was a productive use of your excess magic."

_ "_And _I'd _say that that was you talking about it," she frowned at him.

His grip tightened on her hips slightly as he replied, "But I have such fond memories of that incident, love."

Sigyn opened her mouth, about to reply to him as irritation rose in her, but found herself quickly pulled into his lap, her legs either side of his. She made a small noise of surprise as his lips collided with hers, but she didn't object. And she didn't have the time or the inclination to think about what they were arguing about while he kissed her. She sighed as she pulled back from him and looked into his amused eyes.

"What do I have to do to channel the magic?" she said, giving up their previous discussion.

"Whatever you wish," Loki smirked.

He was amused, albeit glad, that he had distracted her from her anger and set her on target again. She could be so easy to persuade sometimes; and not so easily persuaded at others- he was just thankful that this time was one of the former.

"I don't understand," she admitted after a while.

Loki smiled and answered, "You have to put your excess magic to use or it will build up."

She blinked. _That actually makes sense_, she thought as she considered his words. _Why didn't I think of that?_ But a voice in the back of her mind told her that it was because she knew absolutely nothing about magic and that she couldn't be expected to figure all of this out.

_Damn Loki's amusement at watching me try,_ she thought, frowning to herself. Her husband looked at her curiously, questioning her expression. Instead of revealing the truth of her thoughts to him, Sigyn chose to distract him from the look on her face by asking a question.

"Do you do that? Put your excess magic to use, I mean?"

He inclined his head, answering her with a yes. She paused for a moment and looked at him.

"Wait, hang on a second- is that why you're always playing tricks on people?"

"It's also why I play the piano," he smirked.

She blinked, surprised by the sudden revelation of knowledge. So that was why Loki so frequently used his magic to play tricks on people; not necessarily because he found it amusing- although he most certainly _did_- but because he had to. That was an interesting piece of information to learn.

But Loki didn't just put his magic to use by tricking people, he also used it to play the piano. The way he said it, there was so much that could be done with magic. It sounded as if Sigyn would be able to do whatever she wanted with the excess of it.

"So, _anything_?" she queried.

He raised a brow. He could see an idea brewing in her mind already and he would kill to know what it was. Loki wondered if she would tell him. It was so tempting to see the way her brain worked and to know that he could uncover her secrets if he set his mind to it.

"So I could channel it into helping me learn things?" Sigyn asked.

Her eyes were hopeful and it only made him want to discover her thoughts even more.

"In theory, yes," he answered. "But what is it you want to learn, my little Sigyn?"

Loki's hand came up to rest on the side of her neck, his thumb stroking over her cheek. She leant into his touch and closed her eyes for a moment. His other hand shifted to tuck one of her long curls behind her ear.

"Oh, just things," Sigyn smiled, opening her eyes again.

He looked at her, his question in his glance.

"I'm not telling."

Loki stared at his wife. Wasn't this an intriguing stance that she was taking... He smirked at the prospect of convincing Sigyn to reveal her thoughts to him, rather than her just giving him what he wanted. _This could be a very interesting turn of events_, he thought.

"Maybe I can persuade you," Loki said suggestively.

Using the leverage his hand on her neck had given him, he pulled her into a kiss that she willingly returned. Her eyes fell shut as their tongues danced against each others in a sudden bout of passion. Eventually he allowed her to pull back from him, her breathing heavy. She didn't open her eyes until her breaths had levelled once more. Loki smirked at the power he had over his wife's emotions and waited for her to say something.

"Hm," she sighed. "Still not telling; although I must admit that you've given me some other ideas now."

She just grinned at him and, placing her hands on his shoulders, she pushed herself off of him. Sigyn started walking toward the door of their rooms, pleased with herself for finally having something over Loki. Her plan had been to leave him standing behind her, perhaps stunned by the insinuation of what she would not tell him.

But this was _Loki_. Her husband didn't not stand behind shocked so easily. He appeared in front of her and she stopped abruptly, jumping and clutching her chest. He gave her a small smirk as he stood before her.

"That still amuses you, doesn't it?" Sigyn asked once she had regained her composure.

His smirk broadened before falling away as he said, "You know, I have ways of _making_ you tell me, love."

She pouted.

"_Loki_."

He grinned at her expression and his hands came up to rest on her shoulders, his thumbs playing with the dipping collar of her dress. She could feel the temptation in his fingers as they teased the material.

"Can't you let _me_ have some fun for once? Can't you just let it be a surprise?"

His lips twitched at the corners.

"Surprises are my _business_-" Loki started.

"And _you_ are _my_ business, therefore surprises must be my business too. I knew that when I married you."

He couldn't help but grin at her logic.

"Indeed... I will find out what you're planning though."

"It would be nice of you not to," she commented, tilting her head to the side.

"Nice is _not_ my business," he answered, somewhat honestly.

Sigyn's expression remained unchanging and, for that, he could not resist giving in to her.

"But for you, love," he continued. "I will try to curb my intrigue."

Her eyes lit up at his reply. She hadn't thought that he would give up so easily, but she was happy that he had.

"Now, although I cannot persuade you to reveal your secrets," Loki started, his thumbs curling under the material that they had been teasing. "Perhaps we could return to that kiss?"

Sigyn beamed and let him pull her back into a kiss.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sooooo, new chapter, new information. I'd love to know what you guys think. :)**

**Plus, to the guest reviewer that said '****I don't care if it's bad of me, I still wish Sigyn set her sisters on fire.' - It's not bad of you, I wanted that too. But unfortunately that's just not how the story goes. :/ I still curse myself for inventing them to be so annoying... ¬¬ :/**

**Kit xx**


	5. Feeling Green

Loki's attempt to stay out of Sigyn's secrets lasted no more than a week. But, luckily, she had been prepared for that. She had had a feeling that Loki wouldn't be able to resist trying to find out what she was up to, so she had started a couple of things- none of them that would be of great interest to Loki.

First, he had caught her playing the violin, attempting to use her excess magic to help her. It seemed to Sigyn that Loki had planned it so that he had 'conveniently' walked in on her when she was in the middle of a lesson with a tutor that Frigga had set her up with. That explanation was less than convincing though, since Sigyn had decided to take that lesson in a room on the other side of the palace that she'd never been in before.

Sigyn had stopped her attempt at playing as soon as she noticed her husband's presence in the room. She stared at him, unimpressed when he sauntered into the room. The expression on his face was a little too self-satisfied for Sigyn's liking.

"I thought you were going to try not to find out what I was doing," she accused with a frown.

A sideways smirk crossed his face as he took a seat in a chair that had been pushed up against the wall.

"I'd call this more of a coincidence, love."

"I picked a room on the other side of the palace for a _reason_, you know."

"Ah, but how do you know that I don't frequent this part of the palace and you have conveniently decided to conduct your business in my way?"

"Because I asked your mother, that's why," she bit back with a knowing grin.

Loki stared at her blankly. He hadn't expected her to have countered him in such a way, but he soon saw the humour in it.

"Touché, little Sigyn. Touché," he conceded, but he didn't make a move.

"You're not going to leave, are you?" she asked after a while.

"Not a chance of it, love," he grinned. "Do continue; I'm only here to watch after all."

She sighed and turned back to her instructor, nodding to him.

"I must apologise for my husband; he appears to have fondness for dropping in on me just to make me uncomfortable," Sigyn said to the man.

Loki chuckled to himself as she began to play again on instruction. Despite his initial disappointment that he had not caught her in the middle of anything more important, Loki was quite pleased to have found her trying to play an instrument. He loved the violin too.

As he watched her though, he noticed that his wife seemed to be finding it hard to get the notes and keep in time; and he could tell why. Although she might have been trying quite dedicatedly, Sigyn wasn't applying her magic to the task. And that was probably due to the fact that she had no idea how to do such a thing. Loki moved behind her, placing his hands over hers and causing her to pause, a little surprised.

"You need to focus your mind, Sigyn," he whispered into her ear. "Think carefully about releasing the magic and relax."

She let out a slightly frustrated breath and his hands lifted from hers. Taking his advice, Sigyn tried the piece that she'd been endeavouring to play again and found herself pleasantly surprised. With the help of the magic that Loki had told her how to release, the song played out smoothly, even if it was well beyond her actual ability. She paused at the end of the piece and looked back at Loki with a raised brow.

"I thought you said that magic couldn't be taught; isn't that _technically_ classed as teaching?" she asked.

He smirked a little and answered, "Advising, I would say."

Another decision Sigyn had made was to begin horse riding. She'd always loved horses but had never had the chance to learn how to ride, and now seemed the perfect opportunity in her opinion. The only problem Sigyn found was that she had absolutely no idea where the stables were.

So, after having another discreet conversation with Frigga without Loki's knowledge, everything was quickly put into place. Her mother-in-law had arranged to have a horse brought to the stables for her, for a handmaiden to show her the way there, and for a stable hand to instruct her.

Sigyn was dreading the handmaiden being the one that she had almost yelled at when she'd first become a Goddess, but was happy when she saw that it was a different woman entirely. A very pretty woman who had a tendency to try and invent conversation with whoever she was near apparently.

"Have you ridden before, my lady?"

Sigyn looked up and shook her head at the woman.

"So this is your first time?"

"Yes. I'm quite nervous to tell you the truth," Sigyn admitted.

"Oh?" the woman questioned.

"I tend to fall quite a lot... particularly when my husband gets involved," she answered with a small smile.

"I can't honestly say I'm surprised that you want to learn how to ride, my lady," the handmaiden said after a while.

Sigyn frowned.

"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.

"Well, it's _Loki_ you're married to, isn't it?"

"Yes," Sigyn said, her eyes narrowing at the other women.

"I'm sure you'll want to be able to get away whenever you can then. If I was you then I'd want to be out as much as possible-"

"It is a good job that you are not me then, is it not?" Sigyn replied coldly.

She didn't know where the woman was going with that sentence, but she was quite sure that she didn't want to hear the end of it.

The handmaiden faltered slightly, trying to recover with, "I- I just meant that-"

But Sigyn really didn't want to hear it.

"I would think very carefully about how you are about to finish that sentence because you are on very dangerous ground right now."

"I- I just meant- it's _Loki_, I didn't think-" the handmaiden stammered.

"No, you did _not_ think. Let us get one thing straight, I _love_ my husband and I do not appreciate anyone talking negatively about him. No matter what he has done or what he will do, I love him. I hope you remember that I would not hear a word said against him or things could go very badly for you," she growled. "Particularly since I am not quite in control of my magic yet and I'm still having _accidents_. Now, do you want to continue discussing my husband?"

The handmaiden stared, her mouth hanging open slightly.

"I thought not."

Both women remained silent until they reached the stables. Sigyn didn't want to hear another word from the woman. She'd thought she'd been angry about what that first handmaiden had said about Loki, but this? _Do the handmaidens just hate him or something? And why do people always think that _I_ should hate him? I wouldn't have married him if I hated him..._

Sigyn shook her head out of those thoughts as best as she could and tried to focus on not setting anything on fire- namely the handmaiden, even though she would have royally deserved it. The woman nodded politely to Sigyn and left when they arrived at the stables, but Sigyn did not return the gesture. She wanted the handmaiden to know that it was unacceptable to say things like she had.

Sigyn walked into the stables and was directed to a beautiful horse in the corner stall of the stables. The stable hand that had told her which horse was to be hers introduced them, and, although both horse and potential rider were somewhat nervous at first, they soon relaxed.

For an hour, the stable hand went over everything that Sigyn might need to know about caring for Hylling, the mare she had been given. She listened intently, trying to remember every detail she was told, and when she admitted that she was finding it hard, the stable hand had to remind her that he and others would be there to care for the horse most of the time.

He was only giving her all of this information in case she should ride somewhere that meant that she would not return in the same day. Sigyn nodded. _That makes sense_, she supposed. After that, the stable hand showed her how to saddle and unsaddle her horse twice, before leaving to allow her to try on her own.

It didn't take long for Loki to discover where Sigyn had gone to try and use up more of her excess magic; gossip around the palace could travel so easily if one had the right ears to listen for it. And Loki most certainly did have ears everywhere; he liked to know what was going on far too much not to.

He made his way to the stables where he'd heard that she had been taken and found his wife stood beside a dark bay horse that he did not recognise. A horse that his sources had told him had apparently been brought to the stables for her. Loki walked into the stables, pausing at the end of the stall so that he could watch as his wife lifted a saddle onto the creature.

"She is a good horse," he noted.

Surprised at the sound of her husband's voice, Sigyn's head snapped around.

Her shock soon faded to a mild disappointment that he had once again found out what she was doing, but she smiled at him anyway and replied, "So far."

"What is she called?"

"Hylling."

"Loyalty. A good name," he said with a slight smile. "So you're going to learn to ride?"

She nodded.

"I think it would be best, don't you?"

Loki smiled a little. Yes, it would be best for her to learn to ride. Riding was good for both safety and recreational purposes, and he would never object to his wife's learning to be accomplished in it.

"So does this count as another coincidence, or were you actually trying to figure out what I was doing to use up my excess magic this time?"

He moved closer to her and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Couldn't resist," he whispered.

She sighed as he pulled back from her. She had known that he'd easily find out about her playing the violin and horse riding; that was exactly why she'd done those things first. Sigyn kept what she really wanted to use her magic for in reserve. She was almost certain that Loki would lose interest in the use of her magic eventually, and then her plan could come to fruition. She wanted to surprise him; but right now she was slightly distracted.

"Do you..." she paused in her question, not knowing quite how to phrase it.

"What, love?" he asked.

"Is there something going on between you and the handmaidens?"

Loki raised a brow and stared at his wife. He wondered why that question would ever cross her mind.

"Whatever would give you that impression?"

"Oh, it's just that a few choice comments have been made that I'm not particularly happy about..."

"What did they say?" he asked, giving nothing away.

But that was enough to set Sigyn on edge. _Evasive can't be a good thing_, she thought.

"What's going on, Loki?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing to worry yourself over. There's absolutely nothing going on now."

_ "Now_?"

He grinned and let out a small, humoured sigh.

"In the past I may have focussed my attentions on them," he admitted, still smirking.

Sigyn scowled. _Attentions?_ She knew well enough about his attentions and how he used them, and it irked her to no end that he spoke so flippantly about them. And she did _not_ need to know about any other women that he previously focussed them on.

"Your _attentions_? You know, that's _not_ something your _wife_ wants to hear, Loki."

She turned to saddle up her horse, agitated and growing increasingly angry. She was beginning to regret ever asking him about the handmaidens. For his part, Loki could only look slightly confused. He put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to get her to turn back to him, but he barely brushed her skin before she shrugged him off.

"Don't," she said through gritted teeth.

Loki disappeared only to reappear on the other side of her horse so that she was forced to look at him in order to continue saddling her horse.

"Sigyn, I think you misunderstand-"

She tightened a strap on the saddle rather forcefully as she interrupted him, "No, I understand very well what your _attentions_ are-"

"So you know that what I meant by _attentions_ was that I used to torment them with my tricks then? That I used to follow them around, usually waiting until they were carrying something heavy or precious, before I startled them in various ways, making them drop whatever they held and subsequently putting them in the ill graces of their betters?" Loki said calmly.

Sigyn stared. That was _not_ what she had thought he meant by attentions. _Oh_ _dear... I seem to misinterpreted that one..._ she thought as she glanced at his serious expression. Loki watched the stunned realisation dawning in her expression before she turned away from him again in an attempt to hide it.

She frowned, but found that he was already in front of her again. And he was smirking. In that moment she couldn't have disliked an expression more than the one that she just knew that he would be wearing. Loki's hand came up and a finger curled into her hair, toying with it.

"Why, love, was that not what you were thinking?"

She opened her mouth to reply but quickly closed it again. She knew that he knew what she had been thinking; and she just wasn't going to give him the pleasure of admitting it. But that only caused his smirk to grow.

"Is that jealousy I see, love?"

Her cheeks darkened, betraying her. How she wished that she could be anywhere but right there. How she wished that she could be anywhere but in front of her husband's oh-so-satisfied smirk.

"Oh, how green suits you, love," Loki said, his voice silky as he revelled in the thought that she might actually have been jealous at the notion of him being with another.

He took hold of her chin and pulled her to him, melding his lips to hers. She made a muffled noise into his mouth but he simply ignored it, deepening the kiss. In fact, the only reason that he did pull away from their kiss was because he inadvertently made Sigyn stumble backwards into her horse and they startled the creature. The two broke apart and she couldn't stop giggling for a long while. Loki smirked and shook his head at the interruption.

"Fair play, Hylling," he said, leaning over Sigyn to pat the horse behind her.

But, as he bent over his wife, he placed his lips beside her ear and whispered, "When you get back from your ride, I fully intend to show you that you have nothing to be jealous of."

**Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed the chapter, 'cus I had such a crappy time with writing it, simply because I somehow managed to lose all the notes I made for it. No worries though, I found them eventually. :P**

**Oh, and here's a drawing I did of what *cough* may have happened after that promise Loki just made: countesscasualty [remove this] .deviantart. [remove this] com/#/d57xd1r (That was actually the only way it would let me post that link. Ridiculous...)**

**Also, I got Loki'd yesterday when I was having a completely unrelated conversation about a TV program and I just started calling one of the characters Loki without even noticing... *facepalm***

**Kit xx**


	6. Lies That Amuse And Upset

Sigyn was exhausted by the next morning. Loki had made good on his promise and she had managed to get very little sleep- not that that bothered her. She was left far too contented to fuss over lost sleep. Loki and Sigyn spent their morning relaxing in their rooms, seated comfortably together on one of the dark green sofas, despite the fact that she was almost certain that she should be doing something.

After a while, she asked, "Loki, I was wondering... how am I supposed to figure out what to do with my magic- you know, not just the excess magic?"

He stared at his wife, momentarily giving no answer.

"I mean, surely there's a real reason that I was given magic. How am I supposed to learn how to use that properly?" she continued.

"When the time comes you will have to apply it to your duties as a Goddess."

She nodded slowly before asking, "And... when will that time come?"

"When the Allfather decides it is so," he said simply.

"Right..." she replied quietly. "So I'm still not going to get any training for this, am I?"

"I'd like to see you figure it out," he said, giving her a sideways smile.

Sigyn paused at his words. She could have sworn that he'd just said _like_; but he couldn't have just said that, could he? Because that would imply that he had a choice in helping her figure it out, and that couldn't be the case- Loki had told her that magic couldn't be taught. And yet...

"Wait a second- you'd _like_ to see me figure it out?"

He said nothing.

"Loki; answer this with the truth or we may have to redecorate because I can already see flames," she threatened quietly. "What you said about not being able to teach magic, was that the truth?"

He could not hide the flicker of amusement from his eyes as he remained silent. Sigyn opened her mouth in outrage, but it took her a while to find a word that wasn't an expletive.

In the end, she had to settle on, _"Loki_!"

"You married the God of Mischief and Lies, love, what did you expect?" he shrugged.

"For my husband not to lie to me about something that was clearly very important and distressing for me, maybe?" she half-yelled at him.

Despite her raised volume, Loki could hear the hurt in her voice; and he could see the upset forming in her expression. His amusement quickly faded into a frown. The reaction that he was getting had not been the one that he had intended.

"Sigyn-" he started.

"No, Loki. _Listen_. I told you my every insecurity about not being good enough for this and still you let me flounder with no idea of what I should be doing! Why would you do that?" she vented. "What on Asgard could have possessed you to do that to me?"

When he gave her no answer, she turned her back on him and crossed her arms. Tears had started to drip down her face and she couldn't bear to cry in front of him. Not because of this. Sigyn didn't even know why it bothered her so much.

It was just that she had always thought that in something as important as this that Loki would have been honest with her. _Apparently not._ Still standing behind her, Loki put his hands on her arms in an attempt at comforting her, and he found himself glad that she didn't push him away.

"Why did you do it?" she whispered.

"Why do I do anything?" he replied sadly.

He kissed the top of her head and turned her body slowly back around so that she was facing him again. She didn't look at him though; and it hurt him. He lightly pulled her chin up so that she had to meet his gaze and was brought face to face with her pained and tearful eyes.

"I wish you hadn't done it. This was one instance when I really needed the truth. I thought you would have understood that," she murmured sadly.

The pain in her tone cut through him. It made him feel so much worse about what he had done. Loki wasn't used to feeling remorse for his actions- but one look at his wife's face caused him to feel the emotion in full force. Abruptly, he stepped back from her, his fingers leaving her chin.

"There are books in the Asgardian library that will tell you everything you need to know about using magic," he said, his voice monotone.

Then he left. Just left. And Sigyn had to watch him walk away. She didn't understand at all. She had noticed the change in his demeanour; and she knew that Loki never acted like this. It made no sense. But Sigyn was too upset to really consider that.

What did it matter that Loki was acting strangely? He had lied to her about teaching her magic just so that he could amuse himself. As fine as she normally was with the things that he did, this was out of line.

* * *

Upset and more than annoyed at what had just transpired between her and Loki, Sigyn knew that she had to get out of their rooms. After five minutes, she left with a huff, determined that she would be away by the time Loki decided to come back.

She had to focus her mind on something positive rather than the discussion they'd just had, or things might start setting alight again. And she knew that the best way to do that would be to go to the Asgardian library and find those books that Loki had mentioned.

As hard as she tried not to think about what Loki had done though- the lie that he had told- she couldn't stop her mind from dwelling on the subject. How could he have lied to her about something that clearly bothered her so much? Why would he have done that? Sigyn scowled, and wrapped up in her thoughts, she did not see the figure rounding the corner until it was too late.

She collided with the taller woman and gasped as she realised that it was Lady Sif that she had bumped into. Sigyn didn't really understand how she hadn't seen the woman coming, but she had a feeling that it had to do with being a little too wrapped up in thinking about what had happened with Loki.

"Oh, Lady Sif... I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Don't worry about it, Lady Sigyn."

Sigyn cringed a little at the title. She still hated it when people called her 'Lady'.

"Please don't call me that; the Lady part, I mean. I'd prefer just Sigyn if that's all the same."

Sif smiled slightly.

"Not overly fond of being called Lady?" Sif asked, but she continued before Sigyn could reply. "I can't say that I am either. Perhaps we should both consent to abandon our titles, agreed?"

Sigyn nodded, "Agreed."

She was a little surprised at how pleasant Sif was acting towards her. The two women had rarely spoken, and Sigyn had been almost certain that the warrior woman wouldn't be too fond of her because she married Loki. She _had_ heard about the incident where Loki had cut Sif's hair off, after all... But apparently, Sif wasn't harbouring any ill-feelings towards Sigyn, which was a nice discovery.

"Forgive me for asking this, Sigyn, but are you alright?" the taller woman asked.

Sigyn looked up, almost startled to see a snippet of concern in Sif's kind eyes. She frowned and quickly tried to wipe away whatever remnants of her tears that might still be present with the palm of her hand.

"Erm... Yes. Yes, I'm fine," she answered, rather unconvincingly.

But Sif wasn't going to let her off that easily apparently, as she quickly levelled her with a disbelieving look. Sigyn could only sigh. She could see the determination in the woman's expression and knew that it meant that she wasn't going anywhere without answering her questions properly.

"I may have had a slight argument with Loki," she murmured quietly.

Sif frowned at that. Though she wasn't overly fond of the younger Prince, she could see how much this 'slight argument' was bothering his wife. And Sigyn seemed nice enough; if she was managing to stick through a marriage with Loki then she would definitely need someone to talk to too.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Sif asked, placing a comforting hand on the smaller woman's shoulder.

Sigyn paused. Do_ I want to talk about it?_ She wasn't quite sure; but after thinking about it for too long a moment, she knew that she had to give some sort of answer.

"I... don't really know," she admitted.

Giving her a sympathetic glance, Sif threaded her arm through Sigyn's and said, "Come, let us sit and then you can decide whether or not you want to discuss what happened."

Sigyn found herself led some way off of the corridor into a room that appeared to be much like the hall that she frequented with Loki. The only difference really, was that instead of a long table, a group of gold-upholstered sofas stood in the middle of the room. Sif sat her down on one of the surprisingly comfortable sofas before taking a seat beside her and waiting to see if Sigyn would speak. And, after five minutes of solid silence, Sigyn finally relented with a laboured sigh.

"He lied to me about something important."

The expression of Sif's face was not shocked. _Everybody knows that Loki lies, how can his _wife_ be so surprised?_ she wondered curiously.

"I'm aware of the fact that he lies, but this... This was something that I made it very clear that I needed to know about. It was important and I thought..." Sigyn trailed off for a moment, as if she couldn't figure out what she thought.

"I thought that he wouldn't lie about that; not to me..." she admitted quietly.

Sif placed her hand over the clearly upset woman's next to her, causing her to look up.

"Everyone knows that Loki likes his tricks, yes?" Sif started.

Sigyn nodded.

"What most people fail to understand is that Loki has a problem distinguishing the right moment to _stop_ with his tricks. I learnt that lesson first hand," she added, twirling a finger through her hair.

"If that's true, then why are you still friends with him?"

Sif smiled sadly as she replied, "Loki will see the humour in an instant, but he doesn't understand the repercussions of his actions and I don't think he cares to. Thor yelled him into understanding what he'd done to me, but I didn't think that Loki would need that with you. I've never seen him care for someone as much as he cares for you; and I'm quite sure that whatever he did to upset you so was not his intention."

Sigyn stared for a moment. She knew that this warrior woman spent a fair amount of time with her husband, but she didn't understand how she could evaluate him in such a way. _'He doesn't understand the repercussions of his actions and I don't think he cares to'_ sounded about right; but it was the last part of Sif's speech that had bothered her; '_I'm quite sure that whatever he did to upset you so was not his intention_'.

"Am I overreacting?" Sigyn asked quietly.

At that, Sif let out a small laugh.

"No, I don't think you are. I think that you are perfectly justified in your reaction; I was only suggesting that you consider that Loki struggles with the concept of other people's reactions and feelings in regard to his deceptions. You may want to take it slightly easier on him when you next see him- after all, I hear that your temper can almost rival Thor's."

Sigyn blinked. My _temper? How does she know about that?_

"I'm not that bad," she tried to cover herself.

"Oh really?" Sif grinned. "So just before Loki began courting you, you didn't come into the palace and start yelling at him, right?"

Sigyn's mouth hung open. Where was she getting this information?

"How do you know about that?" she asked.

"It may be a large palace, but circles of gossip are also quite large. Not much remains a secret here," Sif smiled.

"I'll have to remember that..." Sigyn said, returning the expression.

The two lapsed into a moment's silence before Sif asked, "Feeling better?"

Sigyn nodded.

"Thank you."

"It's nothing," Sif replied. "If you ever you need to talk to someone, be sure to find me. I've been around Loki enough to understand that he can become a bit much at times."

Sigyn smiled. This had not been how she had expected a conversation with the woman that her husband had so offended to go. But she was glad of it. It was nice to have met someone else that she could speak to if she wished. She didn't have very many friends at all; and apparently, speaking to her sisters now drove her crazy enough to set things on fire.

"Well I suppose I should leave you to your business," Sif started abruptly, as she stood up. "After all, I must get back to my enjoyable day of doing absolutely nothing."

Her tone was obviously sarcastic.

"You know, I was just on my way to the library; would you care to join me?" Sigyn asked.

Sif grinned and replied, "Why certainly; I think you may have just saved me from an afternoon of utter boredom."

"Anything to repay the favour," Sigyn smiled.

* * *

It took Loki just over twenty minutes to truly realise his mistake. He had been dwelling on the conversation that he had just had with his wife for some time and, for some reason, he couldn't work out what had happened to have affected him so differently to usual.

The hurt in Sigyn's eyes had been so prominent when they'd spoken; he had heard it in her voice too. How could he have been so stupid? Certainly, it had amused him to watch her try to figure things out, but what was the cost? He paused at the thought.

It troubled him deeply that he was even considering this. Loki never felt like this when he decided to lie or deceive; the occurrences were so common now that no reaction ever seemed to bother him. _So why am I feeling it now?_

_ Because you love her_, a voice in the back of his mind whispered to him.

That revelation was enough for Loki; he transported himself back to their rooms, only to find them completely empty. His heart sank. He had hoped to find Sigyn there so that he might speak with her. He _needed _to speak with her._ Where is she?_ he wondered as a frown creased his brows.

Loki tried the library next, but to no avail; she wasn't there either. Nor was she at her father's home, or their meadow, or anywhere else that he thought to look. Now that he could not find her, he knew that he should not have left his wife after that argument. It had been a mistake that he deeply regretted.

Because now his wife was gone; and it was his fault.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry I had to just wreck the happiness there... But I don't plan on leaving you without continuation for long, I'm half way through the next chapter, but I'm at work all day tomorrow and then going out for a meal so I wouldn't expect an update until Monday.**

**Also, just curious; did anyone else watch Hiddles in the BBCs 'Hollow Crown' series? I think I am actually in love. Not just with Hiddles, but with Prince Hal/Henry V. My favourite Shakespeare character. *Love***

**Kit xx**


	7. Spells And A Promise

The two women left for the library and made their way there relatively quickly. Sigyn felt far better about what had happened with Loki after speaking with her new friend, but she still didn't know what she would say to Loki when she met him next.

She sighed. _Maybe Sif's right. Maybe he didn't understand what it would do or what it would mean to me..._ she thought. _That still doesn't change what he did,_ a voice in the back of her mind countered, and she knew that that was the truth of it. Even if he hadn't meant it, he had still done it.

Sigyn tried to turn her mind from the subject as she and Sif pushed open the doors to the Asgardian library. She didn't want to think about that anymore, and, in the library, she finally had something to distract her. A nervous energy crept over Sigyn as her intrigue grew; she couldn't wait to get her hands on the books that would help her learn to control her magic.

With a quick nod to the Archive Keeper, who responded only with his typical scowl, Sif and Sigyn found their way to the back of the library- though Sigyn purposely avoided the place where she and Loki usually sat because she didn't want to associate the place with how she was feeling about her husband right then.

Sigyn turned to the huge rows of stone shelves while Sif took a seat. The smaller woman placed her hands on her hips and stared at the books in front of her. Her brows creased into a slight frown and she couldn't help but turn back to Sif, confused as she caught sight of something that she never had before.

"Is it just me, or are some of those books glowing?"

Sif smiled a little and replied, "Only the magic ones."

Sigyn blinked. _Magic books give off a glow? In all the years I've been coming here, I never noticed that_... she thought, still frowning. _How is that even possible?_

"And I've never noticed this before because...?"

"It's because those without magic are not meant to notice them. There is a spell upon them so that any person without magic would only see an uninteresting book or one filled with just blank pages should they try to read it."

Sigyn stared at Sif blankly. She remembered coming across a few of those books in her time, and she remembered being confused when she had. Now it made sense, she supposed.

"Oh..." Sigyn said before turning back to the shelves.

Using the slight glowing as a basis for locating the books she sought, Sigyn picked a few out cautiously. She had no idea what to expect when she set them down on the table, ready to read, but she couldn't help but feel nervous about it.

Just as she took a seat, Sif said, "I think I'll leave you to your reading."

Sigyn blinked before slowly raising a brow and asking, "Returning to utter boredom?"

Sif faltered a little and attempted to recover herself with a shrug.

"I'm not overly fond of the library; the walk did save me from the monotony though."

"Well, I'm glad to have done that at least then."

Sif smiled slightly, and finally acquiesced, "In truth, I wanted to make sure that you were alright."

Sigyn grinned and said, "Thank you. I really do appreciate it, Sif."

"Oh but, as a piece of advice, don't let your husband near your hair," Sif recommended, smiling a little sadly.

Sigyn blinked, while the taller woman nodded and departed from the library, leaving Sigyn to marvel at her new-found friend. She had barely spoken to Sif before and yet she seemed to care for her. Sigyn didn't really understand it, and that was probably because she had not ad that many friends in the past; but it was a nice feeling.

She sighed and turned back to her books. Without Sif there, Sigyn read her way through a number of books and she found several with spells that she could teach herself. Simple ones that were specifically labelled for beginners, that was. There were some that caught her eye particularly, for example, she came across one that taught her how to silence her footsteps, and another that taught her how to grow flowers out of thin air.

They seemed silly little things, but they were things that also seemed small enough for her to think she might actually be able to accomplish them. And when Sigyn finally tried one of them out, she found that a slightly wilted lily formed in her hand from nothing. She blinked and stared at the flower in her hand. It had been so easy to create.

The book had told her to focus her concentration, to think carefully about what she wanted and then to relax; to release the magic. It was really much like the advice that Loki had given her about playing the violin. And that only forced another frown onto her expression.

So Loki had _sort_ _of_ been teaching her- even if he had lied about it. But he hadn't let her know that that was what she was supposed to be doing; and that was what annoyed her. And the fact that she had managed to quickly get the hang of the first spell that she'd tried _also_ annoyed her.

She dropped the somewhat clumsy flower that she had managed to create on top of her book and sighed. _Why did Loki lie? _she found herself wondering again. It was in his nature, she knew, but why had he lied about _this_? Surely he had seen how important doing this right had been to her. How much she had doubted herself.

Sigyn tried to stop thinking about it; the Asgardian Library was _not_ a good place to start getting angry. Its contents were just too precious and flammable for accidental combustion; plus the Archive Keeper would probably murder her if anything happened. With a frown, she returned her books to their rightful places and left before anything could go wrong.

On her way back to the palace, Sigyn bumped into Njal and Halvar, standing in place at their normal watch. She gave them an unconvincing and half-hearted smile as she dawdled by.

"Evening," Njal nodded to her.

Halvar remained as stony-faced and silent as usual.

"Trouble with the prince?" Njal added, noting her expression.

"Something like that," she shrugged as she passed.

Just as she passed them, Sigyn remembered something and turned back.

"Njal?"

"Yes?" the guard asked, looking round to face her.

"Just as a piece of advice; stay away from my sisters."

He looked confused, but said nothing. He had no intentions towards Sigyn's sisters, and he couldn't help but wonder why she thought that he might have.

"Trust me, it'll be better for your health if you do. It might also be better if you pretend that you're married if ever you're around them," she added quickly.

He nodded, still a little puzzled, and watched her walk away.

* * *

Sigyn went back to her and Loki's rooms questioning whether or not her husband would be there when she arrived. She knew that she had to go back at some point, but she couldn't seem to quicken her pace there- and she was walking as slowly as she could.

It bothered her that she had no idea what mood Loki would be in when she returned. Truthfully, Sigyn had no idea what mood that _she_ was in. But she wished that she could know his thoughts; she wished that he could know what he felt about what had happened, just so that she could tell if Sif had been right.

She didn't hear music as she walked down the hall and that bothered her. She could usually understand something of Loki's mood from the music he played; but not this time. No sound could be heard but her footsteps, and she couldn't help but pause when she noticed them.

Sigyn decided that the spell she'd learnt in the library that could silence her footsteps might actually be useful now, and she cast it over her feet. Concentrating hard on what she wanted to happen, she tried to recreate the steps from the book, and was met with quite promising success.

That was, apart from when part of the wall hanging to her right caught fire. Hastily she patted it down, with the rest of the material, removing the air from the flames. She'd become quite the expert at extinguishing flames by then.

With her accidental pyrotechnics put out, Sigyn breathed a sigh of relief before continuing down the corridor, her footsteps silenced. When she reached the door to their rooms, she paused. She wondered what Loki would say after he'd just left like that; after he had upset her so much. This was going to be an interesting conversation to say the least.

But for some reason, Sigyn was a little too nervous about what might happen next to walk straight into her and Loki's rooms. So, biting her lip, she tentatively pushed open the door only slightly enough so that she could see into the adjoining room. Though she found herself genuinely surprised by what she saw inside.

Loki stood in front of the dying fire, his back mostly towards the door. Sigyn stared; the dim light illuminated a deep frown set into his expression. That, combined with his clenched fists and the way that he seemed to stare so vacantly into the flickering flames, worried her already.

And that was before she turned her head to look around the room. She blinked when she saw that it was an utter mess. Tables were overturned and chairs out of place. It looked as if something made of glass had been smashed onto the floor, and one of the curtains was torn.

_What happened in here? _she thought. _It looks like Thor got angry and went on a rampage... _But there was only Loki in the room; and his expression more than hinted that it was he that had gone on said 'rampage'.Sigyn walked into the room, closing the door softly behind her.

"Loki?" she said softly.

His head whipped around to her immediately, his eyes suddenly almost surprised. And he was in front of her in a second.

"Sigyn," he murmured, his hands coming up to cup her cheeks.

"What happened?" she asked, confused.

Loki didn't answer her question, he merely muttered, "You came back."

She blinked and looked up at him.

"What do you mean, I came back?"

"After I left... I returned to make amends for my actions; you weren't here. I went to the library; you weren't there either. I couldn't find you anywhere..."

Sigyn stared at her husband. _He tried to find me afterwards?_ she thought, a little surprised. That was news to her. It might have made her feel a little better about it, but the look in Loki's eyes stopped her.

"I thought you'd left."

She frowned.

"Left? I met Sif on the way to the library and got caught up."

Then it was Loki's turn to frown, even though a hint of realisation dawned in his eyes. _She was with Sif?_ That explained why he hadn't been able to find her. He hadn't thought that Sigyn and Sif were friends- _he_ and Sif barely managed to keep civility at times, so he hadn't thought that Sif would even try speaking to his wife.

It hadn't crossed his mind to look for his wife where the warrior woman was; and Loki couldn't help but wonder why Sif had chosen to approach her. It appeared an unfortunate coincidence also, that his wife was with the person he had least expected on the one day that he needed desperately to find her.

"I thought you'd left," he repeated.

When she said nothing, he let out a deep sigh.

"I got angry," Loki admitted as an explanation for the state of the room, raising his hand to gesture at the mess.

Sigyn's eyes travelled around the room again before returning to her husband's face.

"Is that why our home looks like a herd of Bilgesnipe ran though it?

He smiled a little, her attempt at lightening the situation seemingly working.

"Perhaps."

But Loki's expression quickly became humourless again. Even his eyes were hard-set and serious.

"I am sorry to have caused you pain, love. It was not my intention."

Sigyn blinked._ Did Loki just say sorry? Since when does Loki ever say sorry?_ She was almost stunned by his words and couldn't find a reply for such a revelation.

"I wanted to see how you would cope- and, admittedly, you _have_ done exceedingly well. But..."

He paused, and she looked up at him, only then seeing something that she had rarely seen in her husband's eyes. True sincerity.

"I can see that, in this instance, it was wrong of me."

At that admission, Sigyn threw her arms around Loki and kissed him, much to his surprise. _He does understand! _she thought, overjoyed that this was not going to be one of those times that Sif had mentioned, where he did not understand the reactions to his deceptions. _He _does_ care._

"Thank you for apologising," she whispered, as she pulled back from their kiss.

Loki smiled a little, a smile that was almost uncertain. He was still somewhat surprised.

"Just please, don't do that again; not with something that's so important."

He nodded. It was a promise that went against how he normally acted; it went against his very nature. But it was a promise that he was going to try and keep for the sake of his wife.

* * *

**Author's Note: Well I was planning to get this written by Monday, but a bad day at work and a family dinner out turned into me drinking an awful lot more than I should have, and er, hangover, so... Oh well, c'est la vie. Was nice wine though... :P**

**Anyway, I hope you guys like it and will let me know what you think. :)**

**Also, just a warning, I'm going on holiday on the 31st for two weeks, so if I've not updated before then, then I won't be able to until the 14th. :/**

**I'm off to go and watch Batman now, so woo. :)**

**Kit xx**


	8. Flying Food

It took a little while for things to return to normal between Loki and Sigyn, because although she could see ways to look past what Loki had done, he apparently could not. It seemed that the thought of Sigyn leaving because of something that he had done, even though she had had no intention of doing so, had made Loki quite wary of how he treated his wife.

Sigyn wanted to get things back to the way they were though; and she had a long-formed plan to get that to come to pass. The previous day, she had met with Njal and arranged for him to call Loki out for some reason or other, just to get him away from her for long enough so that she could set things up.

And although Sigyn had asked him to participate, as usual, Halvar had refused to be a part of anything that was not a direct part of his duties. So, with only Njal's help, Sigyn managed to get Loki out of their rooms for just enough time to use her magic to put everything into place.

She completed her task in just enough time to settle herself on the back of one of the sofas in their rooms when a confused and suspicious Loki returned. Sigyn just grinned at him as he paused in the doorway, eyeing her warily.

"What are you up to, love?" he asked cautiously.

She just grinned and answered, "Nothing... What did Njal want?"

"Apparently nothing also."

"Oh? That seems a little strange..." Sigyn said, pretending that she knew nothing of this incident.

"Yes, strange indeed. Though I do wonder why my wife seems to be pretending to be so innocent right now,"

She put on a frown and said, "Me? Pretend to be innocent? I have _no_ idea why you would think that."

He caught the mischievous look in her eye, and it made him wary immediately. How unlike his wife that expression was...

"Sigyn," Loki started, his voice quiet.

"Yes?" she answered, feigning innocence.

He rolled his eyes.

"What is it that you're hiding from me, love?"

"I used to be a man," she lied quickly, somehow managing to keep her face straight.

He blinked, taken aback. He knew it was a lie, but it was quite strange to see how seriously she'd said that. She was getting good at lying. Perhaps a little _too_ good.

"I think maybe I should keep you away from those Midgardian humour books. They don't agree with you," Loki replied, smirking slightly.

She grinned at him and hopped off of the back of the sofa.

"You must admit, I _am_ getting better at lying. It's not so obvious anymore, is it?" she smiled.

"Ah, but is that necessarily a good thing?" he questioned, watching as he manoeuvred herself closer to him.

Sigyn tilted her head to the side as she stopped directly in front of him.

"Lying is my area of expertise, after all, and not yours."

"But with having you as a husband, how can I help the things that I pick up?" she asked, winking at him. "Now, if you'd come with me, I have something to show you."

She took hold of his hands and pulled him around to face the door. Above all else, his curiosity enticed him to allow her to lead him where she would. His wife was keeping something a secret and she was going to reveal it to him, one way or another. Loki let her pull him to the edge of the room, where she slipped on a pair of sandal-like shoes, and then she continued outside.

"Sigyn, where are you taking me?" he asked, with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, shhh. Just hold your horses, I'm sure you can go a little while longer without knowing something," Sigyn grinned.

"Either that, or I'll combust."

She shook her head and said, "I'm the one that does the combustion, remember?"

He grinned at her reply. So like his wife. She was learning not to take any nonsense, which, contrary to popular belief, only made him love her more. Her changing attitude only made him have to come up with far more inventive ways to have his fun. And that was never a bad thing, in his opinion. He just had to remember the promise that he'd made her when he thought about his fun. Loki frowned as Sigyn brought him outside of the palace and stopped abruptly.

"Close your eyes."

He looked at her questioningly for a moment and she released his hands to place hers on her hips.

"Just humour me."

With a sigh, he gave in and shut his eyes. Little did he expect the slip of material that was soon tied tightly over his eyes.

"A blindfold, Sigyn?"

He heard her giggle to herself and rolled his eyes, not that she could see the gesture.

"Like you would have kept your eyes closed the whole way without it," she countered.

He shrugged at that; her reasoning was probably quite correct there. She took his hands again and pulled him blindly forward.

"Where were you even hiding this, love?" he asked with a sideways smile.

"Wouldn't you love to know that," Sigyn whispered as she continued to lead him forward.

"Oh, you know that I do," he purred.

But rather than to let herself be taken in by the promise behind his words, Sigyn replied, "Well, you're just going to have to wait until later to find out _exactly_ where that blindfold was. For now, we're going for a walk."

Loki grinned at the fact that his wife could not be persuaded so easily. She seemed to be so invested in this that he decided to play along with her little outing.

He let her continue to guide him with both of her hands, pulling her along to a mystery destination that was apparently somewhere outside the palace.

"This had better be good, Sigyn."

She beamed back at him though he couldn't see it.

"Trust me," she said, earning a shake of her husband's head.

It took some time for the pair to reach where ever Sigyn had been leading Loki, but he did not complain. And that was quite some feat as he was itching with curiosity and only just able to stop himself taking off the blindfold for most of the journey.

"I take it by the fact that we've stopped that we have arrived?"

Sigyn said nothing in reply to that, but merely released his hands and moved around him so that she was behind him. She untied the blindfold slowly, and as the material slipped away from his eyes, Loki found himself blinking as his eyes tried to adjust to the light.

When they had, he knew exactly where they were, though the landscape looked somewhat different to how it usually did. They were in the meadow- _their_ meadow- but the flowers that grew there now were not just the gold ones that had been planted long ago. Though he had not seen the like before, Loki found himself staring at a strange mixture of green and black tulips.

Also, at the centre of the meadow, he noticed that a large blanket had been laid out, on top of which sat a variety of food. Loki blinked at the sight, what a peculiar and yet brilliant idea that his wife had stumbled upon. He was only a little annoyed that he hadn't thought of it first.

"What do you think?" she asked, peeking around his arm.

He stared for a moment, and she could only bite her lip as she tried to catch his expression.

"Well?" she said, after the silence between them grew too long.

Loki turned to look at her and cupped her face in his hands. The look in his eyes was strange in Sigyn's opinion, but strange in a good way, she hoped.

"You did all this, love?"

She nodded in acknowledgement.

"Well aren't I the lucky one?"

"Aren't you just," she smiled, happy that her surprise was going down well.

Sigyn pulled Loki down to sit on the blanket that she'd set out and the pair began to eat the meal that her magic had brought to the meadow. She hadn't conjured the food, of course- that spell was far too advanced for her so early in her magic education- it had been made in the kitchens of the palace. But Sigyn _had_ brought the picnic there, and she was proud of that.

"So how did you do it?" Loki asked eventually.

He knew that she had used her magic to transform their meadow, but he wanted to hear her reveal it herself. He wanted to see the pride form in her expression as she told him of her accomplishment.

She smiled a little as she started, "I went researching in the library and found a couple of useful spells."

Sigyn went on to explain how she had practiced and practiced the spells she wanted to use until she was certain that she would have no accidents; the meadow wasn't exactly fireproof. The whole thing could have gone up in flames with one mistake, after all. But Sigyn had made sure she was truly competent before doing anything near their special place.

"I still don't understand why you went to all this trouble," Loki said, pausing as he ate.

"Because I love you," she said quietly, a smile coming to light her expression again. "And I wanted to surprise _you_ for once."

He grinned. It didn't take much to figure out that this was the thing that she'd thought up to use her excess magic. There would have been no way for her to get all of the food there and still kept it so nice without asking for help. And he was quite sure that she wouldn't have let some servant into their secret place either.

_ So this is the surprise that she thought up to use her excess magic?_ he thought._ Doing all this?_ It was a marvel to him that his wife had managed to conceal this so well from him. She had told him earlier that she was getting better at lying, but he hadn't thought her to be getting quite this good. _I will have to watch that_, he thought.

"This does make my meeting with Njal earlier make so much more sense however," Loki said.

She grinned.

"Sorry about that. I managed to convince him to help me since I had to get you out and away from me or you would have figured it out."

"Yes, no doubt that I would have."

"Humble, Loki," she smiled.

"As ever, love."

He gave her a mock bow that was only interrupted when a piece of fruit rebounded from his head. Loki looked up at his wife with a slight and confused frown on his face, to which she could only bite her lip at to fight against her giggles. Of course, the only acceptable response that Loki could see was retaliation.

Soon enough, the meadow was splattered with the meal that Sigyn had brought for them with the intention that they eat- as was the couple that had been indulging in the splattering of said food. Loki and Sigyn took a seat on their food-covered and now slightly sticky blanket once more, calming down as their laughs started to settle.

"Did we actually just do that?" Sigyn asked with a sigh.

"Why yes, love, I believe we did," he grinned.

"I feel like a Midgardian schoolchild," she laughed.

He said nothing to that, but instead reached out to her hair. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, a little bemused, as his fingers plucked lightly at her hair.

"What are you doing?"

Loki pulled fingers backward, withdrawing a piece of food with them.

"You had cake in your hair," he answered, a small smirk playing on his lips.

"I think I have cake everywhere- and I mean literally _everywhere_- right about now," she replied, but she couldn't stop bursting into laughter.

And Loki couldn't stop himself joining her once again.

When he could speak again, he said, "What an interesting day you prepared, love."

"Perhaps this was a bit of a waste," she shrugged. "This is probably why you are usually the one who makes plans."

He smirked.

"I wouldn't say that today has been a waste at all, love."

"And what _would_ you describe today as?"

"A beautiful surprise from my beautiful wife."

"I really surprised you?" she smiled.

"As only you could," he answered, a grin catching his expression. "Now, I can think of something else that might make this day even better."

Sigyn raised her brows at him, though his mischievous smile led her to realise exactly what he was going to do next.

"And you can start by showing me where you hid that blindfold."

She couldn't help but giggle as he leant over to her- until his lips silenced her melodic laugh, that was. Yes, she knew _exactly_ what he was going to do next.

* * *

**Author's Note: So, just need to give a shout to Poison Ice, who will know which suggestion that I slipped into this chapter. :) :P**

**Also, to spring this on you, this is the penultimate chapter. What, you say? Yes, there's only one chapter left, however, there will be oneshots and a second sequel; they just couldn't have happened without this little snippet of Loki and Sigyn's lives. :)**

**Now, I'm off to work to bring birthday surprises to my friend Nat. :)**

**Kit xx**


	9. When You're Hearing Voices

Sigyn groaned as she realised that she wasn't going to get any more sleep. She had no idea what time it was, but she had spent the last half an hour trying to avoid opening her eyes. After so long though, the inevitable happened and her eyes opened.

She found herself lying with her head resting on Loki's chest. She could feel his arm circling her body as she went to move. Clearly he didn't feel like getting up just about as much as she didn't today.

"Morning," Sigyn said quietly.

"It's almost afternoon," he commented.

"Just the time that I like getting up then," she grinned.

He rolled his eyes. His wife was certainly not a morning person. She pressed a kiss to his chest and then tried to push herself up but the arm wrapped around her quickly pulled her back down.

"Perhaps we don't have to get up right away," Loki suggested.

Sigyn feigned shock and asked, "But aren't you usually the one that insists on getting up so early?"

Loki's other hand wrapped around her neck and he drew her down into a kiss, pressing her body to his.

"There are certain distractions that can keep me here, I'd say," he smirked as he released her.

"I like your thinking," Sigyn smiled, before pressing her lips to the base of his neck.

* * *

After their morning 'distraction', the pair sat together eating breakfast, which turned out really to be more like lunch according to the time. Of course, meal times never did run too smoothly with this pair. Loki tapped his knife on the table, creating a rhythmically repetitive tune- a rhythmically repetitive tune that Sigyn couldn't help but find incredibly irritating. After a minute of the sound, Sigyn couldn't stand it anymore.

"Loki, is there a reason that you're doing that?"

He smiled at her but continued his incessant tapping.

"If there's not, then would you mind stopping because you're annoying me to death."

"Me? Annoying?" he said, in mock astonishment.

He had that ridiculous grin planted on his face though- and he just kept tapping.

"Yes, _you_, _annoying_. I find, on occasion, that the two terms can be synonymous," Sigyn said dryly, her annoyance building with every noisy tap of the knife.

"Your words wound me," he said, but he didn't mean it.

Those words did no such thing, and he knew that she hadn't meant anything of the sort when she'd said them.

"Stop tapping before more than my words have to wound you," she half-snapped, as the rhythmic consistency continued to grate on her.

"What? _This_ tapping?" Loki questioned, whacking the knife just that little bit harder against the table so that the noise got louder.

"Just stop! Enough!" she shouted exasperatedly. "You're behaving just like a child."

The tapping stopped immediately. The outburst had clearly been enough. _Thankfully_, Sigyn thought.

"Driving me insane..." she muttered.

After a short pause, Loki said, "I think you might finally be ready, Sigyn."

She blinked.

"Ready for what?"

"Your duties."

She opened her mouth and set aside her breakfast- or rather, her lunch.

"What are you talking about?"

"I provoked you on purpose, love," he grinned.

She blinked again, confused. Loki stood and moved around the table to press a kiss to her forehead.

When he pulled back, he said, "But look what you did; or rather, look what you didn't do."

She stared at him uncomprehendingly and he held up his hands in a grand-looking gesture.

"No flames," he smirked.

Sigyn said nothing for a second; she just looked around herself. Loki was right. She'd been annoyed- even a little angry- and nothing had burst into flames. She hadn't even realised until now that she'd controlled her magic.

"Well that's new," she said quietly.

"It certainly is," he beamed.

"Wait a second," she said, suddenly narrowing her eyes. "Is that why you've been setting me off so much recently? To see if I would still set things on fire?"

He looked down and laughed a little, a quiet sound that faded when he returned her gaze.

"Perhaps," he grinned.

Sigyn couldn't help but find the grin infectious, and a small smile came to her lips.

"I swear, if I didn't love you so much, I probably would have killed you by now."

"Then it is a good thing that you _do_ love me so much," he said, bending his neck to kiss her again.

* * *

Later, that day, Loki took Sigyn to see his father. The arrangement of this meeting did not come as a surprise to Odin. In his wisdom, he had known that she would learn to control her magic soon enough.

Loki stood at the edge of the hall, while his wife stood in front of the Allfather. He could tell that she was nervous by the way she was biting her lip. Like the last ceremony, there wasn't much to say; but this wasn't the same as when Odin had named her a Goddess. This was far more simple and supposedly without the same formality. And that was the reason that Loki was allowed to be present this time. Well, one of the reasons anyway.

"Sigyn Iwaldidottir, wife of Loki Odinson; Princess of Asgard-"

_Funny_, she thought, _even without the supposed formality, this is starting the same way as last time._

"Goddess of Fidelity, Patron of Faithfulness-"

_ Admittedly, that's new._

"I release to you your duties, so that you might protect and serve those under your care."

Gungnir clashed against the floor once more, just as it had the last time she'd been in this position. The only difference was, this time, as the sound echoed across the hall, Sigyn fell unconscious. Loki rushed to her side and caught her before she hit the floor. He looked towards his father, who merely nodded. With that, Loki left the hall cradling his unconscious wife to him.

* * *

When she regained consciousness, Sigyn felt like she was in the middle of a crowded place. It was so noisy. There were voices everywhere, which probably meant that people were around her too. She frowned but didn't open her eyes. She groaned as the voices got louder. Where in Valhalla was she and why was there so much noise?

"Sigyn?"

She heard the voice say her name only quietly at first. Was it someone in the distance? She was sure that it was a familiar voice.

"Sigyn," the voice said again, only louder this time; closer.

She opened her eyes and found herself lying in her own bed. Loki was sat beside her, but otherwise the room was empty. She blinked. So where was the rest of this noise coming from?

"Loki?"

He gave her a small smile. In truth, he looked slightly relieved that she had woken up. Sigyn didn't even remember what had happened. How long had she been asleep?

"What happened? The last thing I remember was the Allfather-"

"The release of your powers knocked you unconscious," he explained with an apologetic smile.

She stared but didn't question it. _That sounds about right_, she thought. She was a little annoyed that no one had told her that that was going to happen, but surprises were nothing new. The voices _were_ new, however; and they were still chiming loudly like the chattering of a thousand voices.

"Can you hear that?" she asked.

Loki stared.

"Hear what?"

_ Great, I'm crazy now..._

"The voices..."

Realisation dawned on Loki's features.

"Ah _that_," he said quietly. "My father told me that that would happen."

She looked at him questioningly.

"Those people, the voices you can hear, they're calling out for your help."

She blinked.

"They're _what_?"

"You are the Goddess of Fidelity. As a Goddess, one would expect that _someone_ would pray to you and ask for your guidance."

She stared at him blankly for a moment.

"You're not serious are you?"

He gave her a serious look and said, "Deadly serious; this is important."

Sigyn just continued to stare at him. So he was telling the truth then; he'd promised not to lie if it was important.

"Right... So, what am I meant to do?"

He shrugged.

"What feels right," was his only answer.

She could hear the troubles of others as they called to her in her mind. And she could hear them even more clearly when she concentrated on them. She closed her eyes and tried to focus ononly one of the voices. She could hear it; every word the voice said. Sigyn thought of a reply, a sort of idea that might set them on the right path; and the voice disappeared. It was that simple. _But surely not,_ she thought. Sigyn opened her eyes and looked at Loki.

"What feels right..." she repeated with a smile.

Strangely enough, in her opinion, It didn't take Sigyn long to master her duties. The only thing she was still a little unsure of after a few days was the advice that she was giving out. She could only hope that what she offered was right for those that she offered it to.

That time had also allowed her to figure out how to turn down the volume of the voices so that they were a mere whisper whenever she couldn't bear listening to them any longer. It could be overwhelming to hear them constantly, she'd found.

In fact, Sigyn had put into place what she liked to call 'office hours'. It was a Midgardian concept, but, in using it, Sigyn put aside hours of her time to focus solely on her duties. And at those times, she was often seen rubbing her temples as she gave her advice. It became a common sight, but one that was reserved only for those select 'office hours'.

It may have seemed strange to some of the other Gods and Goddesses, even to Loki, but Sigyn was just glad that she had organised her duties in a way that she was granted some relief from the thousands of voices in her mind. And she had Loki and his tricks to deal with when she wasn't hearing them, so she needed to focus when she was.

* * *

**Author's Note: I bring this update to you from Mojacar, Spain where I am dutifully stealing internet from a restaurant... So anyway, going against what I said last time, this is NOT the last chapter. There will be another one after this because this one just kept growing so I separated it into two. :P I'll post that one soon... Probably in a couple of days if I still have internet. ;) Anyway, hope you liked it and will let me know what you think! :)**

**Kit xx**


	10. A Celebration Of Sorts

Sigyn stood in front of a tall mirror as she continued to get ready for the celebratory feast that Loki had only just informed her was being held in her honour. The only reason that she could really think of that could warrant a celebration would be the fact that she would no longer be setting things on fire anymore, but she didn't make a fuss about it's unnecessary nature.

She slipped into a long and sleeveless dress. Figure-hugging, the deep-green and almost-glossy material fishtailed at the knee. Sigyn pulled part of her hair back and secured it at the back of her head with a gold tie so that her long curls cascaded down her back. She looked the picture of a princess- even if the still didn't quite feel it.

"That dress looks stunning on you."

She turned and saw Loki standing behind her, just inside the doorway.

"But I'd rather she you looking stunning without it."

Her cheeks darkened and he smirked, but he didn't give her much time to dwell in the moment. Loki stepped towards her, a gold band, a necklace in his hands. She gave him a bemused look as she caught sight of it, which prompted him to explain.

"I had this made especially for you, love. It is a symbol of your status," he whispered as he positioned it around her neck.

When it was in place, he pressed a kiss to her neck, just above the gold band.

"Beautiful."

She gave him a tiny smile, and said, "Thank you."

She didn't understand why she had to have a symbol of her status, but she chose not to look at the necklace that way. Instead, Sigyn chose to look at it as a striking gift from her husband.

"Come," he said, taking her hand.

As usual, she followed him, only a slightly nervous hesitation lingering in her. She wasn't too pleased about a feast being held in her honour- attending one for someone else's benefit she could handle, but one for her own? Sigyn shrugged off the uncomfortable feeling that this feast gave her and let Loki lead her where he would.

The sight that she'd been expecting was not the one that greeted her when Loki led her into the main hall of the palace; the one they had married in. When her husband had told her about this 'celebratory feast', Sigyn had thought that it would be a gathering of perhaps a number of people that she knew. Apparently that was not the case, however.

A number of people was actually a few hundred, and the hall before them was swelled with exuberant bodies. Sigyn had had no idea that this was to be such an event. To her it was just the beginning of an endless job that might sometimes give her joy, but more often gave her headaches. _Kind of like being married to Loki_, she thought as the pair gingerly stepped into the hall.

"You didn't tell me there'd be so many people," she muttered to Loki.

He raised her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss there before replying, "I know how you dislike being the centre of attention."

She blinked. She _did_ dislike being the centre of attention; but it hadn't occurred to her that that would even factor in Loki's mind. Despite the fact that he recognised her discomfort, didn't mean that he tampered his plans for it though, she noted. Sigyn realised that all that it meant was that she got thrown blindsided into her discomfort.

"Well thanks for your consideration," she grumbled quietly before they reached the throng of people awaiting them.

Formality was the first affair of this feast, it seemed, as Loki pulled her to a stop beside his parents, who were waiting to greet them. They had to give their greetings to a number of others as well; Sigyn was the guest of honour at this feast, after all. _Just like at our wedding_, she thought, frowning at how she'd disliked the exact same process just as much then too.

When they had completed giving their greetings, the feast began. And it went on for far longer than Sigyn would have expected, simply because there was a lot more food and a lot more people than she would have expected. Sigyn had to remind herself that when Loki's family said 'feast' they really meant it.

After the guests had taken their fill of the seemingly endless food and drink before them, music sprung up, but from where, Sigyn could not see. A little confused, she watched as a number of people got up and started to dance. It seemed a strange contrast to eating part of the feast- all those moving people.

Loki kept Sigyn with him though, and the pair ended up sat a corner table, relaxing with each other. And she was contented. It didn't bother her too much that they were just sitting there; taking in the atmosphere was enough for her. At least she wasn't totally the centre of attention anymore.

They had the occasional visitor, as was to be expected, but no one that Sigyn really knew approached. That was until Sif found her way to the couple. It was a strange sight to any that might have been watching and were unaware of the connection between the two women, but the smiles on their faces could not be denied.

Sigyn was indeed happy to see the woman who had managed to cheer her up and reassure her when she had most needed it, while Sif seemed simply pleased to see that the shorter woman was in higher spirits than she had been on their last encounter.

"Sif, it's good to see you!" Sigyn grinned, standing up and hugging her friend.

The Lady Sif returned the expression as her arms wrapped around the smaller woman in a friendly embrace.

"Likewise, Sigyn. I see that you are fairing better than the last time we met," she observed when they parted.

Loki didn't fail to catch that remark. No matter how it was said or who it was said to, he knew that it was meant for him. Apparently, Sif just couldn't help but take advantage of the knowledge she'd unwittingly garnered when encountering his wife. The woman irked him to no end, but he wouldn't rise to her bait.

"Sif," he said plainly with a rather stiff nod.

She nodded in return but said nothing. In the following conversation between the three, Sif barely said two words to Loki. That was until Loki tried to make a joke that had a distant association with previously long, blonde hair, purposefully to provoke her anyway.

And then Sif was quick to counter with, "You know, I was going to try not to bring this up at such an occasion-"

"And what is that?" he asked, raising his brows.

She was quiet, her voice seething, as she answered him, "You weren't the one that witnessed your wife's pain when she told me about how much you hurt her."

"Sif!" Sigyn exclaimed suddenly intruding on the awkward exchange between her husband and her friend.

She blinked, utterly dumbfounded at why Sif would say such a thing. The way she had spoken about Loki before was totally different to how she was speaking to him now. Sigyn could only whip her eyes between the two before her as the situation elevated.

Sif just continued in that same quiet but horribly harsh voice, "She might not have said it outright, but her eyes said everything her words did not. I know how much you hurt people Loki, and you're wife does _not_ deserve that from you."

Loki's eyes hardened. _Sif never could take a joke_, he thought. But she certainly did know how to throw words around. Unfortunately, the God that she had chosen to mince words with was a master of the art himself. But just before he could reply, the tense trio found themselves interrupted.

"Sister!" Thor happily half-yelled as he threw his arms around Sigyn. "It is good to see you a Goddess now. In fact, it is good to see you at all!"

He released her from his bear-like hug and added, "I was half worried that my brother was going to keep you locked up away from the rest of us forever."

Sigyn tried for a laugh but it was unconvincing. Right now, her purpose was simply trying to make conversation with Thor to distract from the horrible and intense awkwardness between Loki and Sif.

"I think it's more that I lock myself away," she smiled. "You know, recently I seem to have been very good at setting things on fire, and the fewer people in that list of things, the better."

Thor laughed at that, his laugh as booming and thunderous as it had been the first time she'd met him.

"Ah, but you can control that now you are a true Goddess," he reasoned as he grinned at her.

"True," she replied. "But I'm sure that I could still be persuaded to have a few 'accidents' if the situation calls for it."

He laughed again, but both Loki and Sif seemed unfazed by the sound. They were still staring at each other in that awful way. Sigyn had no idea what to do, she wasn't quite sure how she could stop things escalating. Luckily, a thankfully clueless Thor's interruption salvaged things once again as the music changed.

"I love this dance!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Lady Sif, a dance if you would?"

He held a huge hand out to Sif, who's eyes quickly shifted from younger brother to elder. She nodded, and Sigyn noticed no anger in her eyes anymore.

"I would be delighted," Sif replied, and she and Thor disappeared into the number of dancing couples.

* * *

Loki remained silent and just watched the two of them leave. But Sigyn couldn't watch them go. Her eyes had settled on her husband and she couldn't bear the expression she saw etched onto his face.

"Loki," Sigyn said quietly, trying to get him to say something.

He didn't speak though. He didn't even look at her.

"Please say something."

He stared straight ahead and his voice was terse as he asked, "Did I really hurt you so much?"

She looked down for a moment and then back at him.

"Look, it's in the past now. You apologised."

She watched as his hands curled into fists under the table.

"So I did," he murmured as if it made no difference whatsoever that he had apologised.

Sigyn curled her hand over his.

"You promised not to do it again; that's enough for me, Loki," she tried to reassure him.

But he still wouldn't look at her. She placed her free hand on his cheek and pulled his face around to her.

"I can cope, remember? I had a problem with what you did, and we sorted it out. That's what we're supposed to do, isn't it? It's normal."

He cast his eyes to the floor.

"It's in the past for me; let it be that way for you now too."

Finally he turned his eyes up to her, and she could see the pain still there. It was a remnant of what he had done and what it had done to her. Sigyn pulled him into a kiss, hoping that she could bring him back to his usual self.

As she pulled back, she pleaded, "Be the Loki I know again."

A small almost-smile took hold of his lips.

"Almost there," she teased.

Loki rolled his eyes and smiled at his wife. How he loved her.

"Good, _there_ you are. Now, I believe you owe me a dance," she smiled.

"Somehow I do not recall promising to dance, love," Loki replied, raising an eyebrow.

"No? Well you should get to that, we don't have all night."

He grinned and stood, holding out a hand for her to take. He couldn't resist acquiescing to his wife's request when she asked in such a manner. They danced for a long while, or so Sigyn assumed, because when they first began they had encountered a rather flustered Njal who had grudgingly informed her, when asked, that he was avoiding her sisters.

She had laughed at the time, but after a number of dances, Sigyn later saw him dancing with one of the twins, Lifa. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the guard, and wondered how he had ended up caught in his unfortunate place on the dance floor.

"Oh poor, Njal," she said as she met his clearly uncomfortable gaze. "I did warn him to stay away from my sisters..."

Loki merely chuckled and shook his head. Sigyn's sisters were an unfortunate pair that he would rather have never encountered; but he knew better than most that one couldn't choose their siblings.

* * *

Eventually, some matter called Loki's attention away from their dance momentarily, but Sigyn used the opportunity to get a much needed drink. And on her trip, much to her surprise, Sigyn found herself approached by a rather sombre-looking visitor.

"I am sorry for how I spoke to your husband," Sif said, with an apologetic smile. "Sometimes I still find it hard to deal with Loki."

Sigyn didn't know what to say to that. She understood that Sif and Loki might not get along with each other; they had good reason. What she found unexpected was the vast difference between how Sif spoke to her _about_ Loki and how she spoke _to_ him. It was almost baffling.

"I... It's alright, I understand," Sigyn answered, even if that wasn't entirely the truth. "Well, I'm a little confused, but I think I understand anyway."

Sif put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know what you mean; and I'm glad you do, because I was hoping that we might become good friends."

Sigyn smiled a little and said, "Me too."

"Since I seem to be incapable of holding my tongue, I'll just try and stay away from Loki for a while," Sif said. "Speaking of your husband..."

The taller woman slipped away as she noticed the approach of the God of Mischief. Nobody was very keen to see the two meet again for a while, and luckily Sif wanted to keep the peace for Sigyn's sake. And luckily, Loki didn't see her before she disappeared.

When he found her, he was quick to pull her back into another dance. His earlier unwillingness to participate in the activities of the feast apparently forgotten, he led her quickly into the convergence of people. Perhaps it was just that he was trying to make up for the memories that Sif had brought back earlier, but he seemed determined now that this was not going to be a night that she forgot.

"Miss me?" Sigyn asked with a smile as he spun her around.

"Always," Loki replied, as he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

* * *

**Author's Note: So that's it, the end of this story. Hope you enjoyed it! :) More oneshots and another chaptered sequel to come. :) I'm excitedddd, hope you guys are too. :)**

**EDIT: Um, my cat, Molly, who I've had for 15 years just died. I hope you guys will understand that it might be a while before I get anything else written.**

**Kit xx**


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